Nose in a Book.

I wish that I had something meaningful to blog about. Heck, I'd settle for silly. Instead I'm engrossed in this book:

So engrossed, in fact, that I spent more than an hour in the tub last night reading it. Such an eye opener. Incase you're curious, it's about a journalist who wanted to see how people lived while working minimum wage jobs. It really just add's fuel to the fire already burning in my soul - that the working class has it the worst. In my opinion, people in the lowest class of people get alot of assistance from the government (more money back at tax time, more child tax benefits, welfare, etc.), and the upper "white collar" class enjoy a financial freedom if they don't spend frivolously. This leaves the working class (of which I definitely reside) who work their butts off their whole life and never have much to show for it. My husband has two jobs and I have held as many as 3 jobs at a time in the not so distant past and will have look for a second job when my maternity leave ends. But, because we're married we don't get GST cheques and we'll end up owing the government when we do our taxes. My husband and I live a nice life. We're very fortunate. We have one reliable vehicle that we share. We live in a very nice house. We have lots of food in our cupboards and we don't go without any needs. Usually we can even sneak a few wants in there too. That being said, we could have never done this on our own - even when we worked 5 jobs total. Our vehicle? Sold to us at a very reasonable rate by my Dad. Our house? Only possible because of a very generous loan from my Mom. Honestly, without her we would never have been able to save our down payment.

Wow, I didn't know I had that rant in me. I apologize. Anyway, Little Miss Elle is napping so I am going to get back to my book. This is my life. 

Added Holiday Stress

Ohhh the stress of trying to purchase a house. Now I remember why I've rented all these years. Being not a very patient person, the waiting is literally killing me. Okay, okay not literally but still. Gah!

It all started off innocently enough - doesn't it always? - with me casually perusing MLS listings. I saw a couple nice ones and one amazing one that was shocking priced reasonably. But still, I knew we were in our lease til the end of April 2012 so it was all just for fun. But then our bedroom closet sprung a leak. By bedroom closet, I really mean the bathroom of the aparment upstairs sprung a leak. I'm talking serious water damage and an increasingly alarming mould outbreak. Turkey Butt and I had to clear out the closet, move our clothes and bed into the (already crowded) nursery and close up the room. Our landlords solution? A few days later they stopped the leak but have yet to address the fact that the closet will have to be torn out and redone, the mould issue will have to be dealt with, and the carpet will have to be ripped up.

All of a sudden, Turkey Butt and I are thinking we should fast track our home buying plans. So we contacted sweet hubby's bank and a real estate agent to get the ball rolling. Cut to a week later. After looking at 4 houses, we had my father-in-law come up to inspect our top two picks. Pick number two ended up having structural damage to the tune of approx. $50, 000 so scratch that off the list! Pick number one (a.k.a. dream house) needed a new roof ($3,000 to $5,000) and my father in law had a few questions about the spray foam insulation in the basement.

So, we put an offer on our dream house last night. We offered $7,000 less than the asking price. We felt this was generous considering the house had been on the market for a year and was located within spitting distance to a busy street. They counter offerred at $2,000 below their asking price at about the same time we found out the insulation needs to be covered to meet building code regulations and insure it isn't a fire hazard. Father-in-law estimates this would cost another $2,000. Oye.

Here's my dilemma, I am not moving my family into a house that has unsafe, flammable materials in it. This is a given. But at the same time, do I really want to add another out of pocket expense onto an already expensive home? So far we're looking at a minimum of $5,000 of work and this doesn't even include the little things (like bannisters need to be built for both staircases). This is my dream house and it is magically, just barely, in my budget due to the poor location but there has to be some give. If the Seller's agree to fix the basement and install smoke detectors ( there are none in the house), then we will accept their counter offer. If not, we may up our offer by $1,000 but that will be our final offer.

Soooo much stress over the holidays. My patience is wearing thin. Oh, and did I mention that the bank was supposed to get back to us "by the end of the week" with the amount that they'll preapprove us to borrow for a mortgage? But look at that, the bank closed forty minutes ago and it's a Friday. Now we'll have to wait til Monday to find out if we'll even be approved for enough money to purchase this house. Sigh. This is my life.

Wedding Planning Continued...

While I'm on the subject of wedding planning, I thought I would pass along a couple things that I have found useful to me. For starters, I slowly began buying bigger ticket items before we were even engaged (in our case I knew it was coming - maybe not recommended for all). My wedding band has been purchased from EidelPrecious on Etsy (in September) and my custom wedding dress was purchased from Etsy (in December - but that's all I will say on the subject as Turkey Butt follows my blog).

Since my venue is a freebie, and my photographer comes at an amazing price, I've had extra room to start purchasing lots of little things. I am ALL about the details, I really think that is the key to an intimate wedding ceremony and reception. So these last few months before our wedding, I'm spending a little money here and a little money there to get all the details just right.

This month I've created our personal Save-The-Dates using Picnik and printed them at Walmart's Photo Centre. I've ordered our customized guestbook from the GuestBook Store (so simple, unique and inexpensive). I've picked up numerous monogrammed items from Michael's and through wonderful vendors at Etsy. Again through the wonderful land of Etsy, I've ordered a custom wedding stamp, custom wood-carvings, and even some coasters which I'll decorate all on my own.

And the total cost for this month of wedding planning: $250. Considering I purchased all of the above, plus all of the gifts for my wedding party and invitation samples, I think I made out pretty good. The best part? It was all money I had to spend. December was a 3-pay month at one of my jobs, and having that second job was good on the wallet as well. Now I've got a great headstart and my financial situation is still very secure! This is my life!

Wedding Planning Confession...

... I will not be dropping big bucks on my wedding! There, I said it. I know it completely goes against the grain (think shows like, Say Yes to the Dress where brides spend 20 grand on there wedding) but I'm a simple kind of girl. My engagement ring, for example, cost my wonderful fiance a whopping $200 (taxes in). Believe it or not, I picked it out of the Sears Wishbook.

Not spending $3,000 (the price on the vintage-esque ring I liked at the jewelry store) on a ring is such a stress reliever. I can jump into wedding planning and trip planning and just general life planning without wondering where the money is going to come from. Sure it's a cubic zirconia and not a diamond but you wouldn't know it. Most importantly, I get to spend the rest of my life with Turkey Butt and I wouldn't trade that for all the diamond rings in the world. This is my life!

(Sorry, not the best photo...)

$$$$$

I spent too much money this Christmas. There. I said it. Three Christmas' ago I was broke and thought, How can I give without breaking the bank? So I decided to donate money to charity in lieu of giving gifts to my large extended family and my good friends. Sure, I gave a few tiny things, stocking stuffers really but I stuck by it that first year. The problem? No one wanted to abide by my wishes to not receive gifts either - just money donated in my honour. So I felt guilty and the next Christmas I bought a few more gifts for everyone AND donated money to charity. This year my gift purchasing was extraordinary. Definitely at least as much as I ever did. Plus, I still donated all that money to charity.

Because I've this, i've made the decision to get back to the basics, and make my gifts for next year! Knowing that waiting til the last minute is not an option when making things, I've already begun my creations. Best case scenario, I complete one item a week which will give me 52 items come Christmas 2011. I'm sure it won't be that perfect, but it's a good goal. A fairly realistic goal at that.

With a few days spent in Cottage Country for my birthday, a trip down south (Mexico? Cuba? Domincan?) for our anniversary/Turkey Butt's birthday, oh, and a wedding - money is going to be tight this year. But bring it on! This is my life!

Becoming a Grown-Up.

Who knew that the girl who still hangs upside down from tree branches, rolls down hills and does cartwheels anywhere and everywhere would finally grow up? Okay, would finally temporarily act like a grown up - we all know I'll never actually grow up! Today I met with a financial advisor for the first time. I've been pre-approved for a car loan, am in the process of purchasing a vehicle and I've started making contributions to an RRSP! Go me!

This is my life.

The Desire To Save.

I'm really horrible when it comes to saving money. Always have been. As a child, my allowance was spent within hours of receiving it. Now as an adult, there are important things that I want to save up for. My dilemma is: How do I change my free-spending ways? This is Plan A:


Turkey Butt's best friend, Cee and his girlfriend are moving to New Zealand for a year. Cee's girlfriend and I are trying to convince Turkey Butt that we should go visit for a few weeks next summer.


This is what Turkey Butt would rather save our money for. I'm alright with this too!

I'm hoping that if I can SEE what I'm saving my money for, I'll be less likely to molest the undersides of my piggy bank for silly things like coffee money!

This is my life...