He's eating me out of house and home

It's true. He is. His brother is close behind.

It's budget change time in the MoneyTree household.

Since DS1 started with his team, his eating has gone up exponentially. Lean proteins. Good carbs. And anything else he can get his hands on.  He's working out (on ice, gym, dryland, yoga) about 4 hours a day. Some of it is very intense and some of it less so. Game days he is 'moving' even more, though in a lot of different ways.

Our schedules are not comingling a lot. I am gone in the morning before he gets up. He has 2 hours of practice then a fast lunch while he goes to his afternoon classes. Then he's hungry again right after school, then again at supper. Evenings is another work out. I usually see him at supper and then sometimes when he gets home in the evenings. With my going to bed early from fatigue, I am often asleep when he comes home.

As far as I can figure, I have been at $170 a week for grocery and household items since Sept of 2010. Before that I was $160 a week for a couple years.  It's time for a big jump to match our inflated SK prices and the increased food consumption.  Milk has gone up almost $1.50 /4L (gallon). With gas's rise, so has everything that has to be transported, which is almost everything. On the household side, TP and Kleenex have gone up. Very little is left in the jars anymore, if ever. I know for those in the US, your prices are sooooo much less than they are up here. When I see commercials for sales at your grocery stores like Kroger or even at Target, boy are the prices different.

The food often needs to be ready when they get home from school. Sometimes his window before he has to leave for a game is too tight to prepare a proper supper. The crock pot has been coming out again.  It's a pity he is allergic to seafood and all his smelly fishy friends.  So it's a lot of chicken breast and pasta with broccolli before  games.  It's a lot of prep of things like whole grain muffins for the road trip snacks.

So I sat for awhile with the budget yesterday and tinkered and tinkered. The planned savings will have to slow down a bit as will the LOC repayment. I am boosting my groceries/household jar money by $50 a week.  I am also boosting gas money by $10 a week as we are nearing $1.30 a Liter. So much more gas is used in the winter.

I can't start it until end of October paycheque so I have a couple weeks to muddle through until then. I will try it for the month of November and then re-evaluate to see if I bumped it too much or too little, or if I am using the grocery money wisely.

The gas budget I haven't changed since I started doing the jars in 2009.

How often do you change your budget to adjust for life changes or inflation?

Money Tree Thanksgiving

It was such a sigh of relief to have Thanksgiving Long weekend arrive. We we all looking forward to it on staff, as were the kids.

Our Turkey day was yesterday. Our family is spread out across Alberta and Saskatchewan and co-ordinating schedules for all of us is precarious. Saturrday thanksgiving gave people a chance to travel back home without feeling rushed, or to go to 'the other side' for a second thanksgiving there.

Sister2 hosted thanksgiving out at her acreage. It wasn't insanely warm, but it wasn't snowing (sorry Winterpeg) or raining, so we were appreciative.

Everyone was home. All the kids, grandkids, spouses/girlfriends/boyfriends and a whack of dogs. Sister2's house isn't massively huge but being able to go outside was great, and the whack of dogs loved being able to run and play (even if it meant chasing my cats). Altogether, there were 29 of us.

We started with a lovely weiner roast outside for lunch. Time for a nice little fire, enjoying the 12C weather (with a wind) and the lovely fall leaves. Along with the weiner roast we had a munching table filled with things like cheese dips, veggie and fruit trays, crackers, shrimp rings and chicken wings.

Sister3 brought home her 2 paddle boats and the kids took turns out on my sister's pond.

 

 

Some of the nephews are archers, so they took advantage of the wide open back part of the property to enjoy some shooting. I tried zooming on this pic on my iphone so everything looks stretched.

 

 

 

This is a shot from outside the labyrinth. The shot straight down to the pond was taken in Sept while the second one was taken yesterday. The pond is just off the left edge of the bottom photo.

 

 

Sister2 lives out there alone and was so glad for all the family home. She loves climbing up onto the roof to watch the stars at night, or storms, when they are far off enough to be safe. There is a great view up there and yesterday we hauled up her little bistro table and 2  chairs and people took turns up there visiting and hanging out. Even Grandma (my mom) took a turn climbing up the ladder to enjoy the view of the property and visited with one of her granddaughters. Pretty good for a 70 year old. The boys made sure she got down the ladder safely.

 

 



It was a day of tossing around the football or frisbee, taking the little ones for a quad ride and playing with the little ones in the leaves. nothing like a big pile of leaves for them to jump into. The dogs loved the pile too.

 

 Supper was a traditional turkey feast. I brought the massive turkey. Sister1 brought the ham. Mom made the buns and pies. Sister2 did the stuffing and gravy. The grandkids did the salads, sweet potatoes, pickles, cheese, etc.

Darkness comes early these days so some stayed out by the fire, some curled up inside to talk or some went downstairs to play pool on the used pool table my sister found on kijiji. Nothing says traditional thanksgiving like 'hey let's move a pool table into a basement :-)

hope everyone celebrating thanksgiving had /will have a great time with family, friends, food and possibly football.



Where the money stands

as of October 6th

Debts
Mortgage - $29 763.04
LOC - $2968.09

Total Debt - $32 731.13

Savings/Planned Spending
TFSA/EF - $2045
RESP - $11 600
RRSP - $4200
Christmas 2012 - $1400

So first the good news - the mortgage is now down under $30 000. It's a long while coming. 40 months in the $30 000 decade, to be precise.  It was nice to see it finally move down. I hope the $20 000 decade doesnt' take nearly so long.

Further good news - I was able to make some progress on the LOC and put more than the nomial $50 down on it. It moved down almost $400.

The Christmas 2012 goal is now met, with barely enough time before it will be time to spend it.

My next 'mental' goal will be to get that total debt under $30 000. Not sure if it is doable before the end of 2012 but we shall see.

The next savings goal is RRSP of $1500

Murphy arrived - by mail

Gotta love that Murphy still supports the Canada Postal System :-)

I got my letter from the colonoscopy police. I have to go in at the start of November for another round of exploratoration of my colon. Watch for the feed on Youtube! kidding

Last time it was here in town and my mom just drove me over and picked me up. This time it is in the city, as that is where my specialist is.  This means a hotel stay as the delightful COLYTE I get to drink is not....shall we say....travel friendly.  The hotel will be for two nights as I am semi put out for the procedure (thank God) and am legally not allowed to drive for 24 hours. I don't have family right in the city (nor would I want to stay with them if I did, and live in their bathroom for 24 hours). The pre op day is a Thursday and the Op day is a Friday. As I recall, the last time, after the procedure, the bathroom was still very important to me and having someone drive me home, 90 min without a bathroom, isn't an option.

So a mini vacation for Jolie....like going to a spa. I get a room all to myself for the night. All the TV or reading I want to do without children interrupting me and my own special staff to 'pamper' me with a long camera.

I can probably claim some of it back through my plan (I think), and possibly get some back on income tax next year. Since both of those are maybes or a long ways away, I need to think of this as money out.

Costs to me:
- Colyte (gosh I think it was close to $30 last time
- juices and sprite or ginger ale to chase it down as the stuff is so vile - $20
- jello to pack to put in hotel fridge? (mom will make it)
- gas there and back ($70 ish)
- 2 nights stay in the hotel closest to the hospital ($125/ night plus tax)
- cab fare to and from the hospital (no clue. haven't taken a cab in years. hotel guestimates $15 to $20)
- possibly a meal on the evening after the procedure, if I am up to it. Will have to be delivered to hotel room as I can't drive to get it ($25)
- maybe breakfast in the morning (not sure if the hotel has complimentary buffet) ($10)

total potential cost estimate - $425

And that's why I teach

Got to school this morning to hear the news that one of my students' father is passing away, as I write this. He is/was a single dad caring for his two kids and had had a heart attack a couple weeks ago. My girl had been taking care of him during the evenings. She has no idea where she will live or what she will do, but she came to school anyways. She's new and doesn't know me or the school well. Has a lot of trust issues and is not an easy student.

I came in the room and she came up to me and said 'did you...". yup, I say. I gave her a big  hug and told her to let me know what I could do to help her. I said "you sure you are up to being here today?" She said "yup...you're kinda strict and you make me work too hard, but I know if I am here, I have someone who cares about me'.

(this is an 30 min period of prep time for me while my students are in gym, lest anyone thing I am hanging out online while I should be teaching :-)  back to work I go. yeah essay m arking :-)